The figures supplied by the Department of Prison Administration show that serious police and judiciary persecution is taking place towards foreigners and towards the Roma people in particular.
Rome, May 5th, 2009
In no other civilized country (apart from during the period of the racial laws) is the percentage of prison inmates – both Italians and foreigners – as disproportionate as it is in Italy. Foreigners, both “legal” and “illegal” make up about 8% of the population in Italy. If we take into account that conditions of poverty and social exclusion statistically place foreigners at a greater risk than the citizens of the host state of committing offences, (particularly theft) the percentage should vary between 10 and 12%. The figures supplied by the DAP (Department of Prison Administration) however, show that 38% of the prison inmates in Italy is made up of foreign citizens.
In some prisons, as Antonio Manganelli, the Chief of Police, pointed out today, the percentage of immigrants totals 60, 70 and even 90%. According to racist movements and xenophobic politicians, these figures would prove that foreigners are genetically programmed to commit crimes, much more so than the Italians, (who paradoxically hold the world record for “profits” arising from criminal activities: 150 billion euros per year in Italy, against 500 billion throughout the world). These are not “eccentric theories”, but inconfutable evidence of how out of control racism and xenophobia has got in Italy, a situation that reflects on the police force and magistrates leading to a great number of policing and judicial errors. It can be estimated, in fact, that out of 20,000 foreign prison inmates, at least 14,000 (based on the statistics mentioned above) are victims of judiciary abuse and are unjustly being detained behind bars.
There is yet another worrying figure concerning the percentage of foreigners in jail: 54,5% of the female prison population (both Italian and foreigners) is made up of women from the Roma ethnic group! If we consider that Roma women in Italy make up just 0.09% of the population, it is easy to see the level racist justice has reached.
In the photo, a Roma mother in Bologna. “The police stop us nearly every day,” she says, “and sooner or later they find an excuse to throw us into jail. Then when we stand before the magistrate, we are not allowed to say a word in our defence and we find ourselves in prison without even knowing the reason why”.
Gruppo EveryOne
Tel: (+ 39) 334-8429527 (+ 39) 331-3585406
